The Canadian Pacific Railway entered the Upper Great Lakes shipping business with three steel sister ships, the Alberta, Algoma and Athabasca, the latter vessel being the ship depicted on the stamp. She was built by Aitken and Mansel at Glasgow, in 1883, and was a steel screw steamer of 2,269 gross tons, 1.774 tons under deck, 1,545 net. She had two decks, and dimensions were: length 262ft. 8in., breadth 38ft. 2in., depth 23ft.3in. Her engines, built by D. Rowan, Glasgow, were of the compound 2-cylinder type of 283n.h.p.
The three ships steamed to Montreal M1883 and had to be sliced in half to fit the lock system. Reassembled at Buffalo, they arrived at Owen Sound in May 1884 ready for the lakehead run.
They were the first "lakers" to be equipped with electric light and were so well constructed that people believed "that 20ft. could have been ripped off the bow of the ships without endangering their seaworthiness". Besides normal passenger traffic, they transported troops returning from the 1885 Riel Rebellion and carried grain. The Algoma ran into Isle Royale and broke up, but the other two served for many years. The Athabasca was lengthened in 1910 from 270 to 299ft. She was only scrapped after the Second World War. SG854